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This is a rush transcript from "The Fox News Specialists," July 26, 2017. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

EBONI K. WILLIAMS, CO-HOST: Hey, everybody. I'm Eboni K. Williams along with and Eric Bolling and Kat Timpf. And this is "The Fox New Specialists."

Another very, very busy news day with major developments in the showdown over repealing and replacing ObamaCare in the Senate. Now, just a short time ago, the Senate rejected a repeal-only proposal that would defund many key parts of ObamaCare, the vote 55 no's to 45 yes'. There were seven Republican defections. We're also awaiting remarks from President Trump at the White House. The president is scheduled to make an announcement on jobs. We'll go straight to that as soon as he starts speaking. But in the meantime, today's log in the Senate is showcasing the uphill battle that Republican face on healthcare and getting a bill through. So Eric, we have talked about this ad nauseam. I know you had some very specific ideas yesterday about what the GOP could do at this point. Are you surprised, disappointed at the inability to even pass clean repeal?

ERIC BOLLING, CO-HOST: Extremely disappointed. I think I figured out what's going to go on here. So John McCain rushes back and votes against repealing. I think I figured this out. There's going to be nothing. The Senate will do whatever they can, maybe gets something so they can to throw it back to the house. There's going to be no healthcare bill. So what ends up happening, 2018, a year away, the midterm elections, one year away, the Senate is in good shape for the GOP. They could pick up five or six seats even with a failed healthcare situation going here. The house may be in a little bit of jeopardy. But if you do pick up five additional Republican seats, you can give rid of these squishes that voted against it. They were elected to go and repeal and replace ObamaCare and they can't vote to repeal it. McCain, Murkowski, Portman, Capito, Alexander, Heller and Collins, you guys should all be primaried next time you're up for election.

WILLIAMS: OK. So let's talk a little bit about some of the specific names, Kat. John McCain yesterday, many in the GOP hailing him a hero for rushing back, of course, from a critical illness that we know he's suffering with to at least vote for discussion, but then, of course, as Eric pointing out today, voting against the actual repeal.

KATHERINE TIMPF, CO-HOST: Right. As you pointed out, I think a lot of people are very concerned about the potential political implications or other implications -- real life implications, as well, of people not having healthcare when ObamaCare is just repealed. And that everything will kind of go nuts if that were to happen. It's a vote that I personally disagree with.

(CROSSTALK)

TIMPF: I said I just personally disagree with it.

WILLIAMS: You mean the perception from some people is that what's going on.

TIMPF: Sure. I think so. There could be consequences. I'm not exactly sure about that. The way I understand it, is that would be a gradual thing and wouldn't all go nuts like that. But I think that mostly as a perception type of thing. People don't want to just repeal and have nothing out there. I disagree with it. If I were somebody who's in the Senate and I had ran on repealing ObamaCare, I would have voted to repeal ObamaCare today.

WILLIAMS: Well, we'll get to more of that. Let's first meet today's specialist. She's worked at our U.S. embassies in both Baghdad and (INAUDIBLE), and she's a foreign policy national security analyst, and she's the national co-chair of the Maverick PAC, so obviously she specializes in all things foreign policy, Morgan Ortagus is here. And she's a Fox News political analyst, a recent candidate for the DNC chair position, and the former president of the women media center, and she specializes in singing Dolly Parton songs, Jehmu Greene is here. I've got to get some tunes from you a bit, Jehmu. But Morgan -- and many have said that the GOP just seems to be incredibly far apart on this. So is there any real hope around passing anything involving healthcare? We know they got the debate last night. But is there going to be a bill?

MORGAN ORTAGUS, MAVERIC PAC CO-CHAIR: Who knows, Right? I mean, I could be a billionaire if you could figure out if you're going to have a bill or not. I'm actually a little bit more hopeful than Eric. Because I do think a lot of people are frustrated with the president for calling out Senator Murkowski. I actually think, you know, this president is different from everyone else in politics, and he's going to use the leverage that he has in order to get a bill passed. The bottom line is we can't go into the 2018 elections. Republicans cannot go to the midterms saying give us five or six more seats in the Senate so that we can pass a bill that we want to pass because we weren't able to do it last year because we didn't have enough seats. We left a very convoluted message.

BOLLING: It's a better message, Morgan, we couldn't get anything together?

ORTAGUS: No.

BOLLING: Or it's a better message on top of that.

(CROSSTALK)

BOLLING: . we got something together and it's worse than ObamaCare?

ORTAGUS: Well, if the president and the Senate leadership and the house leadership have a bill that they can ultimately agree on and vote on, then.

BOLLING: You think that they are -- the Senate can't get their act together. Then they have to send that bill in conference to the house, house has to vote on it and then back to the Senate for final approval.

TIMPF: And the house had kind of a tough time getting it together as well.

BOLLING: Are we really under the impression that they're going to be able to make this process happen any time soon?

ORTAGUS: It doesn't look like it. One of the problems is that insurers have to set their 2018 rates in a couple weeks. So there's a lot of uncertainty in the insurance market. I would say that Republicans have no choice. I know it looks dire. I know this bill lives and dies and go to the Senate and the house. It's incredibly frustrating for everyone involved. But I would argue that Republicans have no choice but to stay here, don't go away for August recess until they get this right. How do ask for more seats in 2018 without pass something.

BOLLING: You're going to get them, even if it fails -- even health care fails, you'll get tax reform on the books. You'll get four or five seats in the Senate and you get rid some of these squishy Republicans that voted against repealing. Can you believe this?

WILLIAMS: All right, Jehmu. Bolling predicting something very optimistic for the GOP. I'm going to take a gander that maybe you see it differently. We know for seven years the GOP has talk about repealing and replacing ObamaCare. Here is their grand opportunity to do so, and yet we see hysteria.

JEHMU GREENE, FOX NEWS POLITICAL ANALYST: Yeah. I don't think there's any disagreement between Democrats and Republicans that healthcare is still broken. Even the name sake of ObamaCare, President Obama, he was very clear that it needed to be fixed. And this is a real opportunity for politicians, the senators to prioritize purpose over politics. And when I ran for the DNC chair, one of the things that I really tried to focus on is prioritizing that purpose, but also the substance of it. When you think of the discussion that's going on here in this conversation and all over cable news, it's all about how the sausage is made, it's all about the numbers of what -- to get to the votes. However you think about healthcare, since ObamaCare, there are 20 million more Americans who have healthcare. We need to talk about the successes. We need to talk about.

(CROSSTALK)

BOLLING: How many of those are on new Medicare and Medicaid recipients?

GREENE: It's still healthcare. What are you going to do? What are you going to do? Say you have it today, but you're not going to have it tomorrow?

TIMPF: Also health insurance and healthcare are different. I have friends on ObamaCare, so they have health insurance, but a lot of places won't take it. If I need to go to the hospital, and use all these different hospitals, nobody takes it. So having health insurance isn't the same as healthcare.

(CROSSTALK)

WILLIAMS: Right. And I think many people are clear on that. But let's just play the semantics out here. Jehmu, I think for a lot of people -- Eric, we can talk about Medicare, Medicaid, whatever, they just know that they've got something. And so, for those people that feels if you take it away, you don't replace it with something, though, Eric, I mean -- think about what the ads are going to look like. Think about what the messaging is going to look like in 2018.

BOLLING: You replace it with something better, and you're working on something better than ObamaCare. Remember, I'll give you another number, Jehmu, zero, the number of Republicans that voted for ObamaCare. And now look at you, one of the most liberal Democrats on the planet saying ObamaCare is a failure. It's a failure.

TIMPF: On the planet. Not just the country.

BOLLING: Am I wrong? I don't think I'm even joking about this. You're one of the more progressive people I ever met in my life. I love you, but you are now admitting that ObamaCare is a failure seven years later. We were telling you that seven years ago. But you guys pushed it through.

GREENE: That's nothing new. Like I said, President Obama was saying to Republicans for years, come together with us. Let's fix this. Basically, the same thing now that Chuck Schumer is saying. The same thing.

BOLLING: Whoa, whoa.

GREENE: . the same thing that Senator McCain said.

BOLLING: No, no. McConnell is saying come over across the line, Democrats. We have the house and the Senate. You need to cross the line come work with us. And it doesn't sound like Schumer nor Pelosi want to do any of that either.

WILLIAMS: Well, Schumer did say, Eric, yesterday, he sat on the floor with his glasses on the tip of his nose that, certainly, we want to work with you. He made a plea, Morgan, to moderate Republicans to hold out on this type of bill for something that actually looks better, some type of modification.

BOLLING: No, he wants to keep ObamaCare.

WILLIAMS: He wants to fix ObamaCare.

BOLLING: That won't fly. That bird don't fly.

ORTAGUS: We're also passionate about healthcare because it affects every single one of us. And it's this important. I was talking to people on the hill before I came on air. There's still amendments that the congress is working on. And I think that the senators that are there working on this bill should continue to do it. I mean, don't just walk away from this vote and not pass something. Senator Cassidy and Senator Graham have a bill about -- that the governors really like about giving block grants to the states. We can get in lead on this, but the bottomline is.

BOLLING: Stay right there. And then that goes to the house. What does the freedom caucus in the house say about that?

ORTAGUS: Well, then the president needs to get the house in line. I mean, we can't have this.

BOLLING: The freedom caucus says no. We're not passing that in the house.

ORTAGUS: Well, they need to get in line and support this president somehow. The Republican Party is acting like two different parties. Whether it's the house freedom caucus or its moderates in the Senate, those sides need to come together.

WILLIAMS: Are they two different parties?

ORTAGUS: They are, and they're embarrassing the president in the process.

BOLLING: You can't say that. This is not on the president whatsoever. This is -- leadership on the house and leadership in the Senate who put these two bills together, frankly, on their own. They didn't -- the house bill was never even allowed -- senators were not even allowed to see the house bill, let alone the other constituents within the house. This isn't on the president. You can't do that. Listen, you can say the Republicans are bifurcated and they are. But the president is simply saying get me something that I can get to the American people that's better than ObamaCare. And they failed at the house. They're failing at the Senate.

TIMPF: The way that the government is set up, executive and legislative branches are different, so, of course, he's not going to be writing this bill. I agree with you, Eric, that this should be placed on congress. Blame should be placed on congress for this. But a lot of it, like I've been saying, the GOP is having an identity crisis. A lot of them are way more moderate than the GOP of the past. The point where they're actually like the Democrats of the past, and some aren't. So I don't know how you reconcile those two. I really don't, no matter if you have seven more years. I don't know if you can ever reconcile that.

BOLLING: You repeal now and you work to replace it with something better.

WILLIAMS: Eric, we just saw today, two years, that is what the idea that was put on the floor. You get two years to replace it with something better, your words. They voted it down.

(CROSSTALK)

BOLLING: Well, no, no. McCain, Murkowski, Portman, Capito, Alexander, Heller, and Collins voted it down.

GREENE: You know why they voted it down? It's because -- since that original vote when President Obama was in the White House, more and more people have started to love ObamaCare. There's no other.

BOLLING: Are you suggesting that these seven senators have constituents that are in favor of keeping ObamaCare?

GREENE: Yes.

BOLLING: If you go to the election booths in 2018.

GREENE: They've been hearing a tidal wave of calls in their districts from them. And Morgan, you said this is about the Republicans getting in line to support the president. I'm sorry. Healthcare is not about supporting the president, whoever is in the White House. It is about these members who have been elected in their districts who represent hundreds of thousands of people who have now gotten healthcare since ObamaCare passed.

BOLLING: But you can't suggest that these seven no votes are in favor of keeping ObamaCare.

GREENE: . without any alternative.

(CROSSTALK)

WILLIAMS: Didn't Donald Trump say if you vote no on this, you are saying ObamaCare is working and you are supporting ObamaCare? He said that.

BOLLING: I bet you every last penny I have that not one of these seven senators will ever run on, I want to keep ObamaCare.

TIMPF: He did say that, though.

WILLIAMS: But Trump said that.

(CROSSTALK)

BOLLING: No, the senators didn't. The senators didn't. He said effectively you're voting to keep.

WILLIAMS: Right.

BOLLING: Effectively.

WILLIAMS: Right.

BOLLING: Of course they are. But individually you want to run on I kept -- I voted against repealing ObamaCare? That's a losing proposition in the GOP.

TIMPF: They wouldn't. And I don't think they want that. They're just scared of the alternative because they don't know what.

WILLIAMS: Whose fault is that, Morgan? Let's just break this down. Whose fault is it that after seven years the GOP has this opportunity, and I agree with Jehmu. I've been very critical of ObamaCare. I don't like the mandate and I don't like the premiums. Let's bring them down. In the meantime, nothing is better -- it's really on the table. Nothing is polling better. The CBC scores are a mess. It is just not where it needs to be.

ORTAGUS: It's every single elected Republican official fault, all of them, right? And it's all of us who are involved in the process. We can try to blame Democrats. We have power in both parties of congress and the White House, and we have to come to an agreement on this. So, you know, we can say it's these seven senator's fault. It's this senator's fault. It's everybody. Because whether you're in the house freedom caucus or you're moderate.

(CROSSTALK)

BOLLING: They passed this. They passed this same bill in 2015. They got it to the president's desk who vetoed this bill. Now seven of them say I'm no longer on board? It's the same thing.

ORTAGUS: Right. But the debate isn't over, Eric. I mean, they're still in the Senate tonight voting on this.

BOLLING: No, it failed. It failed. They got 45 votes. It failed. It went down.

ORTAGUS: So no matter what else happens, you think it's a failure?

BOLLING: The straight repeal they passed in 2015, 18 months ago, everyone was on board. They got it to the president's desk. He had to veto it otherwise it was going to become the law of the land. Where are those seven senators who voted in favor -- I'm sorry, six of the seven who voted in favor of it in 2015, why are they against it now? Why? One reason why.

(CROSSTALK)

ORTAGUS: I don't know.

(CROSSTALK)

TIMPF: Because now there's no one to veto it and be responsible for something bad happening. It's about not wanting to be responsible. It's about wanting to run and just using these as talking points.

BOLLING: Agree.

TIMPF: . blah, blah, blah. But not having any real answers.

ORTAGUS: Don't forget.

(CROSSTALK)

ORTAGUS: . what happened to the military? We have evidence before that we've done these sorts of measures in congress and we still have sequestration, right now, because the congress was never able to come together. So I think, I would to guess that's some of the fears of the people that voted against it today. I'm not defending it. I think that they have to get a bill together or they do not deserve to win.

BOLLING: I'll tell you what, there will be primaries.

GREENE: It's all about talk when the reality sets in and they'll realize at stake, that's why they voted against it.

(CROSSTALK)

WILLIAMS: We need more political will. We're going to take a quick break. But we are keeping an eye on that jobs announcement from President Trump. And when it begins, we'll go straight to it. But up next, will an unexpected -- of criminal leak investigation be enough for A.G. Jeff Sessions to keep his job? Stay tuned.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TIMPF: President Trump is supposed to deliver a jobs announcement at the White House any moment now. Eric, this is a big thing. This is one of the big reasons why a lot of people voted for President Trump. Jobs and the economy.

BOLLING: Yeah. And as the mainstream media focuses on Russia, this is what really going on. Jobs numbers have been fantastic. This is some news that we've found out -- we've been hearing about that Apple uses an outside vendor to make this LCD screen for the iPhone. Foxcom is one of the vendors -- probably the biggest vendor. They're going to open up some manufacturing plants I believe in Wisconsin. I think this is what it's all about. But that's great news. Starting out, supposed to like, 3,000 high-paying American jobs. Now these things have been built in China through Foxcom in other countries, but bringing them back to America, 3,000 jobs I understand now, maybe up to 13,000 going forward. This is just what it's about for Donald Trump.

WILLIAMS: This is where President Trump looks strong, right? I agree, Kat, this is why most people that voted for President Trump voted for him -- absent political experience because he's a business guy. He's the guy that knows how to make a deal and get things done. So I think when he first got elected, there's a couple of automobile manufacturers that either kept plants here or came back to their manufacturing home bases here in the United States, and this is the type of thing that he absolutely should be talking about, holding rallies about, doing everything he can to energize base, get more political capitol. To my view, Morgan, I think he spent some political capitol in all of these healthcare losses. But, you know, Eric, ultimately, I think this is a good thing for President Trump to be doing at this point.

BOLLING: Very good thing. Very good thing. Morgan, we're watching -- I think we're looking at the president. He's about to hit the podium. Again, let's remind everyone, this plant is likely going to be in Wisconsin. Paul Ryan comes from Wisconsin. Reince Priebus is from Wisconsin. Scott Walker, also from Wisconsin. Also been a supporter, I guess, recent supporter of Donald Trump. We see Vice President Pence there as well. Jehmu, this is hard to argue with when you look at the economic numbers of President Trump.

Continued here:
Are progressives ready to admit that ObamaCare has failed? - Fox News